Micro feeder



April 24, 1962 J. w. PHILIPPOVIC ET'AL MICRO FEEDER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 24, 1959 NVENTORS Jan c'H/MWPH/L IPPOV/C A2 rHweH. Jouss THE/E A T'TOEUEY April 24, 1962 J. W. PHILIPPOVIC E TAL MICRO FEEDER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 24, 1959 INVENTORS JOACHIM MPH/41PM we 5217102 h. JONES THE/2 A TTOENEV April 24, 1962 Filed Aug. 24, 1959 J. w. PHlLlPPOVlC ETAL MICRO FEEDER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 L T T INVENTORS J04 CHIMM PHIL IPPO vlc B An THUR H.JouEs Zizuflfi THE/IE Arrunuv United States Patent Office 3,031,060 Patented Apr. 24, 1962 3,031,060 MICRO FEEDER Joachim W. Philippovic, Indiana, and Arthur H. Jones, Brush Valley, Pa., assiguors to Syntron Company, Homer City, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 24, 1959, Ser. No. 835,555 7 Claims. (Cl. 198-43) This invention relates generally to feeders and more particularly to micro feeders for feeding miniaturized parts that are very thin being generally of two to three thousands of an inch in thickness and as much as thirtyone thousandths of an inch in thickness.

The ordinary feeder bowl was found not adaptable for feeding miniaturized parts. It is very diificult to not only use the parts to flow to the track but it is also diflicult to properly orient them on an inside feeder bowl track. Again it is difficult to discharge the micro or miniaturized part from an inside track because the extent of the discharge section of the feeder is substantially as big as the feeder itself. These and other difficulties gave rise to the discovery and use of the micro feeder which comprises this invention.

One of the principal objects of this invention is the provision of a feeder bowl in the form of an upwardly open saucer the inwardly and downwardly sloping sides of which extend into an external helical track, the parts being delivered to the saucer type bowl and thence to the track for feeding upwardly. The number of turns in the helical track is determined by the height necessary to receive a bridge member that extends over the saucer. type feeder bowl and to a position beyond the same where the parts are discharged for use. The bridge member must, of course, be lower than the track to enable the parts to be fed by a chute from the track to the bridge. Thus a feeder of this type may require more or less, three complete turns in the helical track. These. turns, of course, depend upon the elevation necessary above the saucer type bowl for receiving the bridge.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a selector and orienting device which is made in the form of a block fitted into a radial slot cut into the track and having formed thereon a section of track which is designed to limit the extent of the track or other orienting factor.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a hollow recess within the cylinder having the exterior helical track for the purpose of mounting the track to the vibratory frame of the feeder. This hollowed section permits the use of a shorter bolt and also eliminates a material amount of metal in the feeder piece since it is hewn from a solid piece of metal such as aluminum and any necessary portions of its volume that are cut away materially lighten the load of the micro feeder bowl which is important to this invention.

Another object isth e provision of a micro feeder bowl having a perimetral saucer which is dished on both sides for the purpose of eliminating material and its weight.

Another object is the provision of a bridge type feeder supported from the base of the micro feeder so as to receive vibratory feeding impulses that are transmitted to the bridge'to feed the micro parts after they are discharged from the helix to a point of discharge beyond the perimeter of the micro feeder bowl. This phase of the invention employs the motion of the reaction base as the feeding impulses for conducting the parts across the bridge to discharge. Yet the bridge is independently supported of the micro feeder bowl.

Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show for the purpose of exemplification without limiting this invention or the track surfaces 21 but half the width of the latter.

claims thereto, certain practical embodiments illustrating the principles of this invention wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the feeder comprising this invention.

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation of the micro feeder shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view illustrating the micro feeder comprising this invention.

Referring to the drawings the micro feeder is supported on the stand 1 which in this instance comprises a frame made of the vertical legs 2, a brace member 3 and the table top member 4. The micro feeder comprises the motor base unit 5 which is preferably a heavy cast iron member supported by the feet 6 which are embedded in rubber within the cap member 7 which are in turn secured to the table 4 by the screws 8. The rubber member between the feet 6 and the cap member 7 prevent any transmission of vibration from the motor base to the table surface 4. The motor base is shown to be square in the drawings and is provided with sloping seats to receive the rod springs 10 of which there are four in number symmetrically spaced about the base. The central portion of thebase 5 is hollow to receive an electromagnetic coil 11 mounted on the core 12 for attracting the armature .13 which is secured to the underside of the vibratory frame 14 of the micro feeder.

The top of the frame 14 is provided with a flattened surface 15 on which the saucer type micro feeder bowl 16 is mounted by means of the central mounting screw 17 within the bore 18 of the micro feeder bowl. A step forming an upper larger bore 19 defines the inner wall of the cylindrical portion 20 on the outer perimetral surface of which is cut the helical track 21 which starts at 22 and runs out at the line 23 in the top deck 24 of the helix. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 the track 21 is cut to provide a slope inwardly toward the outer cylindrical wall 25, thus providing a slope 26 to the track. This slope is the same slope as that of the inner surface 27 of the bowl 16. The outer or under surface 28 is parallel therewith and therefore are the same frusto conical surface.

The top deck 24 of the helix has the radial slot 30 cut through the track which is filled by the track spacer block 31 slidably fitted therein. The track profile on this spacer block includes a continuation 33 of the vertical cylindrical wall 25 from each side of the slot 30. It also includes track section 32 that is flush with the adjacent The outer portion of the spacer block 31 slopes downwardly and outwardly from the track surface 21. This spacer block 31 is secured in the slot 30 by the screw 34 passing through the slot 35 which permits the spacer block to be adjusted to different radial positions which would move the cylindrical wall section 33 out or in from the wall 25 or the block 31 may be replaced by block of diflerent configurations. In this manner the track spacer block 31 may be employed to properly orient parts and those not properly oriented will be discharged back into the external saucer type bowl for redelivery to the track 21.

A second slot which is at an angle to the track 21 is cut deep enough to receive the chute 36 which is secured in place by the cap screw 37. The sides of the chute are sufficiently deep relative to the track surface 21 that all the parts that arrive at that position will fall into the chute and thus be tumbled to the conveying surface 38 of the bridge member 40.

The bridge member is made up of two bar members 38 and 41 which are bolted together by the cap screws 42 and are also bolted to the bracket member 43 that is secured by means of the bolt 44 to the upper end of the springs 45. A cap screw 46 adjustably secures the bracket member 43 to the bridge which enables the bridge to be adjusted at any desired angle relative to the horizontal, that is, the bridge member 40 may be adjusted to extend horizontally or it may be required to feed the parts slightly uphill or it may be required to feed the parts downwardly along the slope. Thus the bridge may be pivotally adjusted about the cap screw 46. The springs 45 are clamped by the screw 47 to the angular face 48 on the block 50. The block 50 is secured by the screws 51 to the base and the block 50 snugly fits in the groove or vertical slot cut in the side of the base as indicated at 52.

It will be noted that the rod springs which support the micro feeder are comparatively small to that of the leaf springs 45 that support the bridge. The reason for this is that the leaf springs 45 do not function as a spring support for the bridge but merely provide some resiliency in th coupling between the bridge and the base 5. The bridge 40 actually vibrates to feed articles along the surface 38 owing to the fact that it is secured to the base 5. In other words, if the bridge 38 were made very stiff and integral with the base 5 it would still vibrate to feed the parts therealong. However, the very small flexibility obtained from the springs 45 aids in the operation of this bridge but must be counterweighted by the use of the counterweight 53 that is bolted with the bars 41 and 38 adjacent the end of the bridge. The springs 45 provide a slight whipping action to the bridge which action is offset by the counterweight 53. If it were not for the bowl rim 16, a solid steel member could be employed to extend upwardly from the base and provide this bridge feeder. However, since the lip of the saucer type bowl 16 extends outwardly beyond the base it is necessary to have a relatively stiff member in the springs 45 to support the bridge as shown. The bridge 40 actually vibrates in the manner of a feeder owing to the fact that it is secured to the base. Since the base is a reaction member to the frame 14- and the micro feeder bowl 16 and when it is tuned to within a few cycles of the frequency of the natural period created by the springs 10 feeds the articles upwardly around the helical track 21. This feeding action is, of course, repeated to a smaller degree in the base itself since the base is a reaction member and thus the bridge 40 merely assumes the feeding action from the base and, of course, does effect to some extent the natural period of vibration of the feeder. However, in the structure as shown, the parts will slowly feed up the helix but will be fed at a materially faster rate across the bridge.

The bridge 40 being made up of the two bars 38 and 41 has the top face of the bar 38 slightly lower than the top face of the bar 41 and a window such as indicated at 54 allows only a very few thousandths of an inch between the top faces of the two bars 38 and 41. Thus if any of the washers or other micro parts are dropped onto the surface of the bar 38 to be fed therefrom and receive a second micro part thereon, the top micro part will slide over the window 54 and back onto the saucer type micro feeder bowl 16. Those parts resting directing on the upper surface of the rod 38 will be fed along the rod and into the open end of the upper chute 55 which is supported by the clamp 56 held by the mounting bracket 57 secured to the stand 1 by the cap screw 58.

A second tube or lower chute 60 is forced over the upper chute or tube 55 which has a curve in its vertical extent as indicated at 61 to slow down the particles. The bottom of the lower chute 60 is V-shaped as indicated at 62 to funnel the micro parts in disposing of them to discharge.

We claim:

1. A micro feeder comprising a reaction base mounted on resilient feet, inclined spring members secured to said reaction base and distributed symmetrically about a vertical central axis, a frame secured to the upper end of said springs, a motor means mounted between said frame and said reaction base to vibrate said frame along an inclined arcuate path of movement about said vertical central axis, a micro feeder bowl secured to said frame and having an outer annular dish that slopes inwardly and downwardly to a central external helical track for feeding articles from the bowl upwardly along the helix, a support independently secured to said reaction base and extending upwardly above said dish, a bridge mounted on said support and extending over said dish to receive articles discharged from said helical conveyor, said bridge having a straight feeding surface tangentially to a circle drawn from said vertical central axis to carry the parts beyond the perimetral surface of said dish, the vibratory movement of said bridge being transmitted directly from said reaction base to reciprocate said bridge.

2. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said vertical support consists of a cantilever spring means disposed transverse to the longitudinal axis of said bridge.

3. The structure of claim 2 which also includes a weight adjacent the outer end of said bridge for controlling the vibratory movement of the same.

, 4. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said bridge consists of parallel bars secured together, one bar having a sloping top surface that terminates against the side of the other bar to form a track with a step.

5. The structure of claim 4 characterized by means defining a window in the second bar, the sill of said window being above the conveying surface of the first bar by the approximate thickness of the parts being conveyed to eject the part back into the bowl.

6. The structure of claim 1 characterized by a pivot means to pivotally secure said bridge member to said sup port to permit the former to assume an angle relative to the horizontal.

7. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said bars are adjustable relative to each other to change the depth of said track step.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,535,050 Devol Dec. 26, 1950 2,609,914 Balsiger Sept. 9, 1952 2,765,900 Seabrooke Oct. 9, 1956 2,799,383 Spurlin July 16, 1957 2,818,968 Carrier Jan. 7, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,126,722 France Nov. 29, 1956 47,758 Germany July 12, 1889 712,978 Great Britain Aug. 4, 1954 

